Pinch-spin tops



Lil

A. G. PASSARIELLO PINCH-SPIN Tops Filed June 5. 1959 1N VENTOR.

4/ 36 f i6 assarzJ/o United States Patent I 3,0l8,584 Patented Jan. 30, 1962 ice 3,018,584 PINCH-SPIN TUPS Angelo G. Passariello, 3416 Ross SE, Albuquerque, N. Mex. Filed June 5, 1959, Ser. No. 818,424 2 Claims. (Cl. lit-72) This invention relates to improvements in toy tops and in means for spinning the same, and more particularly to novel pinch-spun tops and hand-held pinching means therefor.

The primary object of the invention is to provide simpler efficient and highly amusing tops of the kind indicated which are spun by being pinch-rotated by being pinched between a rigid hand-held rod and a thumb or between a rigid rod on a spinner frame and a flexible thumb-operated member on the frame.

Another object of the invention is to provide attractive and advanced tops of the character indicated above, which are preferably light-weight and have hollow bodies, formed of any suitable materials such as metal or plastics, and which have weighted tips which cause the tops to assume erect positions upon surfaces when spun.

Other important objects and advantageous features of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawings, wherein, for purposes of illustration only, a specific form of the invention is set forth in detail.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic top plan view showing a top and a pinching rod held in the hand to spin the top with the thumb and the rod;

FIGURE 2 is a vertical transverse section taken on the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a bottom plan view of said top;

FIGURE 4 is a contracted side elevation of the pinching rod;

FIGURE 5 is a view similar to FIGURE 1, showing the top pinched in a pinching frame;

FIGURE 6 is a transverse section taken on the line 6-6 of FIGURE 5; and

FIGURE 7 is a transverse section taken on the line 7-7 of FIGURE 5.

Referring in detail to the drawings, wherein like and related numerals designate like and related parts throughout the several views, and first to FIGURES 1 to 4, the illustrated top, generally designated 10, comprises a preferably monolithic, and generally inverted conical hollow body 12, having a short plain cylindrical open upper portion 14 on its upper end, and a closed irregularly inverted conical lower portion 16, having a chamfered axial hole 18 in its smaller lower end. Seated in and secured, in a suitable manner, in the hole 18 is the enlarged beveled head 2% on the lower end of an upstanding cylinder 22, the head 20 and the cylinder 22 being of suflicient weight to overbalance the top body 12 to insure its assuming an erect position, when spun and projectedtoward the ground or floor or other desired surface. The head 20' has on its underside a pointed axial tip 24.

The interior of the hollow conical lower body portion 16 is separated from the interior of the upper cylindrical body portion 14 by a preferably integral shallow, frustroconical reinforcing partition wall 26 whose juncture with the side wall of the portions 16 and 14, at the upper end of the lower portion 16, provides an annulus 28 of increased cross section around the top body, which is formed with an external, semi-cylindrical cross section circumferentially continuous groove 30. The partition wall 26, as seen in FIGURE 2, has a flattened smaller lower end 32 which is aligned with and is closely spaced above the upper end of the cylinder 22 of the weighting tip formation.

The spinning means for the top 10, as disclosed in FIG- URES 1 to 4, comprises a rigid round, straight spinning rod 34, of the diameter of the top groove 30, which is long enough to be held in the hand at one end while its other end is applied to the top groove 30, as shown in FIG- URE 1, with the thumb T engaged with the opposite side of the top 10. In this instance, spinning of the top, in the counterclockwise direction indicated by the arrows, and ejection of the spinning top, is accomplished by pinching the thumb T and the rod 34 toward each other, so that the top slides forwardly along the rod 34 while being turned counterclockwise by the thumb T, while an increasing pinching action proceeds, so that eventually the top is pinched and rotated forwardly from between the rod 34 and the thumb T, and snaps out therefrom.

In FIGURES 5 to 7 there is shown another pinch spinning means for the top 10, which comprises a pinching frame 36, which is generally U-shaped and comprises a flat bight portion 38 from one end of which extends a pinching rod 34a, similar to the rod 34, and from whose other end extends a flat, flexible, and longitudinally outwardly curved pinch bar Ta, having a concave outer side 40 and a convex inner side 42, the pinch bar Ta being somewhat shorter than the rod 34a, and having a longitudinal, semi-cylindrical rib 44 therealong to fit the top groove 30.

In this instance the pinch-rotation, in a counterclockwise direction, and forward ejection of the top 10 is accomplished by pinching the rod 34a and bar Ta toward each other, with the top therebetween and the rib 44 and the rod 34a in the top groove 36 and the opposite side of the top engaged with the convex inner side 42 of the bar, in such a Way that the top is rotated at the same time that it is cammed forwardly along the rod 3841, so as to snap off the free end of the bar Ta, which are held as between the thumb T and a forefinger F.

Although there have been shown and described herein preferred forms of the invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not necessarily confined thereto, and that any change or changes in the structures of and in the relative arrangements of components thereof are contemplated as being within the scope of the invention as defined by the claims appended hereto.

What is claimed is:

1. A pinch-spun top comprising a top body having an external circumferential concave groove spaced from its ends, and spinning means for. the top comprising a handheld rigid pinching round rod of the cross section of said groove and adapted to be engaged in the groove at one side of the top body and a hand-held thumb element adapted to be engaged with the opposite side of the top body, said spinning means comprising a U-shaped frame having a bight portion having said pinching rod fixed on one end thereof, said thumb element comprising a flexible fiat pinch bar fixed on the other end of the bight portion and spaced laterally from said pinch rod.

2. A pinch-spun top comprising a top body having an external circumferential concave groove spaced from its ends, and spinning means for the top comprising a handheld rigid pinching round rod of the cross section of said groove and adapted to be engaged in the groove at one side of the top body and a hand-held thumb element adapted to be engaged with the opposite side of the top body, said spinning means comprising a U-shaped frame having a bight portion having said pinching rod fixed on one end thereof, said thumb element comprising a flexible flat pinch bar fixed on the other end of the bight portion and spaced laterally from said pinch rod, said pinch bar having a longitudinally and convexly bowed inner side at the outer end thereof having therealong a rib of the 2,111,180 cross section of and to engage in the top body groove. 2,195,838 2,375,986 References Qited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 643,311 Verniaud Feb. 13, 1900 787,708 1,109,426 Langstafi Sept. 1, 1914 995,489 2,034,293 Hacker Mar. 17, 1936 82,831

Fessenmyer Mar. 15, 1938 Gadke Apr. 2, 1940 Gandy May 15, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS France July 8, 1935 France Dec. 3, 1951 Netherlands Aug. 17, 1956 

